title: Infant cortex responds to other humans from shortly after birth.
abstract: A significant feature of the adult human brain is its ability to selectively process information about conspecifics. Much debate has centred on whether this specialization is primarily a result of phylogenetic adaptation, or whether the brain acquires expertise in processing social stimuli as a result of its being born into an intensely social environment. Here we study the haemodynamic response in cortical areas of newborns (1-5 days old) while they passively viewed dynamic human or mechanical action videos. We observed activation selective to a dynamic face stimulus over bilateral posterior temporal cortex, but no activation in response to a moving human arm. This selective activation to the social stimulus correlated with age in hours over the first few days post partum. Thus, even very limited experience of face-to-face interaction with other humans may be sufficient to elicit social stimulus activation of relevant cortical regions.
authors.affiliation: 1] Dipartimento di Psicologia dello Sviluppo e della Socializzazione, Università di Padova, Padova, Italy [2] Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Farroni
authors.forename: Antonio M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Chiarelli
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lloyd-Fox
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Massaccesi
authors.forename: Arcangelo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Merla
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Di Gangi
authors.forename: Tania
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mattarello
authors.forename: Dino
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Faraguna
authors.forename: Mark H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Johnson
mesh_terms: D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D010775:Photic Stimulation